Public Health deals with the protection and improvement of community health through an organized community effort. This includes preventive medicine and sanitary and social science. There are many issues that affect personal and environmental health, including pollution, globalization, chronic and infectious diseases. The opportunities for public health professionals are varied--health activism, health promotion, and disease prevention in government agencies, voluntary health organizations, advocacy organizations, and businesses all over the world. The schools and programs listed here work to educate future leaders in the public health field.

Current public health concerns and how the public health fields help to combat these issues.

The nation's eight major public health concerns are chronic diseases, toxic wastes, behavior-related disorders, hazardous chemical and physical agents, health problems of low-income, disadvantaged communities, new infectious diseases, problems of the aging population and the health of infants and mothers, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Examples of public health careers that confront these issues include health care managers and administrators, epidemiologists, environmental health scientists, biostatisticians, nutritionists and biomedical scientists. Managers and administrators organize, plan, direct, control, or coordinate health services, education or policy in institutions such as hospitals, clinics, public health agencies, managed care organizations and other types of businesses.

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